Spain’s National Fair-Trade Coordinating Council (CECJ, Coordinadora Estatal de Comercio Justo) has lauched a public awareness campaign to familiarize consumers with the “SPP” label that identifies fresh produce and foodstuffs produced by members of a global small-producers network of 114 cooperatives that guarantee a living wage, decent work conditions, education and other benefits to more than 100,000 agricultural workers and their families in countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Announced Tuesday on World Day of Social Justice 2018, the CECJ federation of Spanish fair-trade NGOs and retail shops said that the SPP symbol (Símbolo de Pequeños Productores) on items certifies that the product comes from one of the democratic self-managing small fair-trade producers belonging to the SPP cooperative network and guarantees that the products are harvested and marketed in keeping with economic, social, cultural and environmental sustainability guidelines.

Backed by an independent certification process, the SPP label allows fair-trade buyers and consumers in Spain and worldwide to connect with and support small independent co-operatives working to erradicate poverty, provide decent employment and education and promote gender equality in their communities.

According to CECJ coordinator Mónica Gómez, more than 700 million people live in conditions of extreme poverty worldwide, a reality that negatively impacts 38 percent of workers in developing countries. Fair-trade and SPP products provide an economic alternative to workers in more than 70 countries, she said, with some 2,000 fair-trade producers worldwide providing a decent wage and work conditions, rejecting the use of child labour and promoting respect for the natural environment.